When it comes to cigarettes, Xi Jinping managed to kick the habit, but China itself still hasn't. Despite the Chinese leader's 2012 pledge to Bill Gates to "do something about tobacco," China's cigarette use has climbed, even as much of the world cuts back, reports the New York Times. The country now burns through about 2.4 trillion cigarettes a year—almost half the worldwide total—with consumption up 39% over two decades. The main obstacle to cessation, experts say: the powerful State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, which both regulates and runs the China National Tobacco Corporation, a cash machine that delivered roughly $244 billion in profits and tax revenue last year, or about 7% of the central government's income.
That money underpins local budgets—tobacco taxes reportedly make up more than half of the revenue in the city of Kunming—and helps fund national priorities, from bank rescues to semiconductor investment. The result is fierce resistance to strong curbs: The national indoor smoking ban was shelved, for example, and packaging still carries only mild text warnings next to patriotic images.
Grassroots activists, often young and female, are trying to fill the gap with social media campaigns and public shaming for smokers, but with economic strains nudging some citizens toward cigarettes and enforcement spotty, officials concede that meeting China's goal to slash the smoking rate to 20% by 2030 will be an "immense" challenge. Still, China doesn't have the highest smoking rate on Earth: That dubious honor goes to the tiny South Pacific island of Nauru, with a rate of almost 45%, per WION.
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